Burundi's district elections, seen as a test of the tiny African country's stability ahead of presidential elections in June, met international standards, European observers said on Thursday. Monday's elections were the first of a series of polls in which the coffee-producer will also vote for representatives to parliament and its next president. District polls are often an indicator of how the rest of the vote will go. Eight Burundi opposition parties said on Wednesday the national electoral commission (CENI) should organise fresh district elections, arguing this week's vote was marred by massive fraud and irregularities. "The electoral process has generally respected international standards in terms of democratic elections, said Renate Weber," head of the EU observers' mission.

The country of 8 million has enjoyed relative peace since the last Hutu rebel group, the Forces for National Liberation laid down arms last year and joined the government.

 

Burundi's opposition on Tuesday demanded a re-run of local polls it said were rigged by the regime while the country's top former rebel threatened a boycott of crucial upcoming elections.

The allegation of fraud in Monday's local council polls -- the first phase of a months-long electoral marathon -- was likely to heighten fears over the stability of the small war-scarred central African nation. "Opposition parties categorically reject the provisional results announced Tuesday by the electoral commission because of the mass fraud orchestrated by the ruling party which has marred this vote," said a joint statement. The document was signed by eight of the country's main opposition parties, including the former rebel National Liberation Forces (FNL) led by Agathon Rwasa which is seen as the regime's most serious challenger. Rwasa, whose rebel group only last year laid down its arms to join the political arena, dismissed the results as "impossible" and threatened to pull out of presidential and parliamentary polls due in June and July respectively.

 

 

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has requested Zimbabwe to re-deploy its troops in the central African country to replace of a United Nations (UN) force that has been stationed there since 1999. The DRC wants the UN mission, known as MONUC to start winding down its operations by June 30 when the vast country marks 50 years of independence from Belgium. DRC Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mwampanga Mwanananga told the weekly Financial Gazette newspaper that SADC troops – to include Zimbabwe - should replace the UN force. This comes eight years after Zimbabwe withdrew from the DRC after a costly adventure which some analysts blame for helping trigger the country’s economic collapse. Mwanananga said the SADC deployment had helped avert disaster in his country.

 

The UN Security Council is preparing to vote on whether to extend the mandate for its peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The DRC has had enough. It wants the UN peacekeeping force to go home. All 20,000 of them. "Don't do anything for us," Congolese Information Minister Lambert Mende told the UN. "We will do it ourselves." It has been more than a decade since the first blue helmets arrived in the DR Congo to damp down the smouldering embers of what was then known as "Africa's World War" - a conflict so complex that it drew in forces from no less than eight African countries and some 25 armed groups. The first of the UN troops arrived in 1999, first to deal with the nationwide civil war, and then with the mosaic of militias that ran amok across the east, looting the region's staggeringly rich mineral resources.

 

 

The Southern African Catholic Bishop's Conference on Thursday asked President Jacob Zuma to intervene in Swaziland's "political crisis". SACBC president Archbishop Buti Tlhagale said in statement: "I have written to President Zuma to ask the government to take part in normalising the situation before it resembles what happened in Zimbabwe.”I've asked the president to consider a mediating role to facilitate a climate of dialogue among all stakeholders in Swaziland." SACBC leaders recently expressed shock at the death of Sipho Jele after he was arrested for wearing a People's United Democratic Movement T-shirt during May Day celebrations in Manzini on May 4. Tlhagale said: "The authorities are claiming that he committed suicide whilst in custody, but the family of the deceased, together with civil society organisations, dispute this." The "tragedy" was reminiscent of the tactics used against those who challenged the status quo in apartheid South Africa, Tlhagale said.

 

The Congress of South African Trade Unions is alarmed by a report in the Times of Swaziland that ANC’s investment company, Chancellor House Holdings, has bought a 75% share in the Maloma Colliery mine in Swaziland from Xstrata PLC. The report claims that the deal has been endorsed by the undemocratic Swazi government, whose Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy, Jinnoh Nkambule, told The Times: “It is true that Maloma Colliery mine shares have finally been purchased by ANC’s Chancellor House Holdings. The signing deal was completed recently and only the legal processes are being finalised at the moment. Government is looking forward at meeting the new management in the near future” For decades the people of Swaziland have been subjected to inhumane treatment at the hands of an entrenched and ruthless absolute monarchy. Poverty has continued to ravage the mass of people and especially in the rural areas. It has been subjected to the longest state of emergency in the whole world, now having been in place for a staggering 37 years.

Political parties remain banned, opposition parties and movements are proscribed, and the notorious Suppression Terrorism Act is used to prevent any expression of democratic activity. The most recent outrage has been the murder of political and trade union activist Sipho Jele by the Swazi police, who even prevented his funeral from taking place.

 

 

A definite date for Zimbabwean elections will be announced only when the constitutional reform process is completed, the country's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said in Pretoria on Thursday.

"Elections are going ahead next year and a referendum will be held and President Robert Mugabe and I will set a date for elections," he told a press briefing, adding that public consultation had begun.

Tsvangirai emphasized the country needed to change and he hoped the process leading up to this would speed up. "Issues like power structure have to be defined by the constitution." It had been 15 months since Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) agreed to an inclusive government, which Tsvangirai said had worked beyond everyone's expectations. He referred to the coalition as a "strategic necessity" amidst a conflict of values.

"But if there is a commitment by parties then the transition moves forward."

The coalition had managed to stabilise the economy, he said. On the negative side was the slow pace in democratic reform.

 

While acknowledging that adding newspapers is a step forward, media observers worried that the new publications could find the current economic environment challenging, and that new papers might struggle to survive. The chairman of the Zimbabwe Media Commission said Thursday that his organization will issue licenses early next week the five newspapers that received approval yesterday to launch publications or expand their activities. They include the Daily News, shut down in 2003 by the repressive Media and Information Commission, Newsday, from Alpha Media Holdings (formerly ZimInd Publishers) which puts out the Standard and Independent weeklies, the Daily Gazette from Modus Publications and the Mail to be funded by the Youth Empowerment Fund. A monthly published by the  Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions received authorization to step up to a weekly schedule.

Media Commission Chairman Godfrey Majonga told VOA Studio 7 reporter Marvellous Mhlanga-Nyahuye that the five companies can start printing and selling their papers as soon as they receive their licenses.

 

Ellen Chademana and Ignatius Muhambi hid their faces as they emerged from a Harare court late on Wednesday, hiding from two photographers -- and from a society that still sees homosexuality as a disease. The two, who work for Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), have been charged with undermining President Robert Mugabe and for possessing pornography. They were due for a bail hearing on Thursday. While they were appearing in court, police raided the home of leading gay activist Chesterfield Samba, seizing identification documents but making no arrests. A court heard on Wednesday how Chademana and Muhambi had been harassed in police custody. They had been forced “into a sitting position, without chairs, for long periods of time”, their lawyer said. Muhambi had also been beaten on his knees with empty bottles.